


Don't Let It Happen Again

by WishfulKittyKat1



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Chiron (mentioned) - Freeform, Suicide, Thalia Grace (Mentioned) - Freeform, The Lightning Thief: The Musical, Their Sign, all of the unclaimed, but he had a point, don't let it happen again, luke was bad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23905663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishfulKittyKat1/pseuds/WishfulKittyKat1
Summary: Luke Castellan's welcome to Camp Halfblood left much to be desired.It hasn't really gotten better since.orLuke's spiral into following Kronos, because it's not easy to be the counsellor of the reject cabin.TW: Non-graphic depiction of suicide.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Don't Let It Happen Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TCG340](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TCG340/gifts).



> TW: Suicide
> 
> So in the Lightning Thief Musical (so good, btw, if you haven't listened to it yet plz do so. the introductory song is exactly what I pictured for the first chapter and the song Put You In Your Place has the strongest Clarisse v Annabeth energy to it) there's a part where Luke is welcoming Percy to the camp, and the way he talks made me wonder how many people he has comforted because their parents refuse to claim them. Thus, this is born!
> 
> This is an early birthday gift for my lovely friend TCG340. Happy birthday!

Luke Castellan’s welcome to camp left a lot to be desired.

In fact, it was more crouching in a corner, clinging to the crying girl who might as well have been his sister than it was a warm welcome to the place that Chiron assured them was for people like them.

Half-bloods. Demigods. Rejects.

Whatever words Chiron used, they all sounded the same to Luke, and he simply nodded when he was told that both he and Annabeth would be staying in the Hermes cabin until they were claimed. He was sure that Thalia would have had a lot to say about that, spitting lightning and insisting that it was ridiculous that they had to stay in the most crowded cabin in camp, Annabeth was just a kid, where was she supposed to sleep, the floor? And hadn't Annabeth been claimed when they were on the road, or did it only count when the glowing symbol came while they were at this stupid camp?

But Thalia wasn’t here. She was a tree. Because the gods couldn’t keep their petty feuds between themselves and had to take it out on their children too. And Luke couldn’t bring himself to yell, so he just nodded.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It didn’t get better with time, no matter what everyone said.

He and Annabeth were some of the lucky ones, quickly claimed and separated. Annabeth was fitting in easily, making friends with all her siblings. Luke was… not. He missed Thalia. He missed Annabeth. He was forced to sleep in a cabin blessed by his father, who had left him with his crazy mother for years without ever saying a single word, and he was constantly surrounded by kids who were hard and bitter from years of waiting for a sign that would never come.

Yeah, Luke hated Camp Halfblood and pretty much everything in it.

He paused outside his cabin. It was the middle of the day, so no one should be hanging around (cabin rules since the last prank war started by those new kids, Connor and Travis), but he could have sworn he heard a whimper from inside the cabin.

He stepped inside. “Someone here?”

Something clattered to the ground. He spun, only to find one of the campers huddled in a ball. Crying. Alone.

Luke hesitated. He should leave, he should let them handle this their own way, he knew he would have lunged at anyone who had tried to talk to him when he was crying after Thalia, but his feet wouldn’t move and his mouth opened of his own accord. “You okay?” he asked.

“No!” the kid spat. “Leave me alone. I don’t want to talk to you.”

Luke slid to the floor by the kid. “Why not?”

“Why do you get to be claimed and not me? Why doesn’t my dad love me?”

He cursed under his breath. This was what happened when you abandoned a kid. You broke their heart.

“I know how you feel,” Luke admitted. “I spent my whole life thinking my dad was some deadbeat, turns out, he’s a deadbeat god. Look, the gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don’t always care. I don’t know why my dad decided to show up that once when I was on the run, gods know I needed him a whole lot sooner than that, but he did. It sucks. Maybe your dad will turn up too, give it some time.”

The kid looked up at him. “And if he doesn’t?”

Luke shrugged. “Then no one can blame you for holding a grudge. You aren’t alone, kid.”

“Aiden.” The kid met his eyes steadily with electric blue eyes of his own. Like Thalia’s. “I’m Aiden.”

“Nice to meet you, Aiden. I’m Luke. Want to go to the arena with me? Ever used a sword? I'm told I'm pretty good."

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Congrats on your quest, Luke."

Luke smiled at Annabeth. "Thanks, Annie," he said, and then turned back to Aiden next to him, expecting Annabeth to go back to her cabin now. A few congratulatory words, and she would be gone again. They had been growing apart recently, as she became closer with her half-brother, Malcolm. It wasn't like it had been on the streets anymore. But she didn't leave, tapping her foot impatiently and crossing her arms. Luke turned back to her and raised an eyebrow. "Do you have something to say?"

"Yeah," she said. "Congrats on your quest, Luke."

Oh. Oh. Luke hadn't been as close to Annabeth recently, but he did know that she wanted more than anything else to go on a quest. To prove herself, to prove to everyone at Camp that she deserved to be head counselor of the Athena cabin even before Gracon graduated and left, which would make her the most experienced camper. And he had promised her that if he ever got one, then he'd take her along. But then Chiron had pulled him aside, and even if he didn't like the old horse, he still respected that when it came to prophecies and quests, Chiron was the resident expert. He wasn’t sure if he believed Chiron when he said that Annabeth was not meant to go on a quest until some certain kid came around, but he wasn’t going to risk it.

“I’m sorry, Annie,” he said. “Chiron told me something, and said I couldn’t take you on this quest. Said you had to wait for someone special. I didn’t want to risk it. It’s not like we’re going someplace easy. It’s the Hesperides’ Garden.”

“You think I can’t handle it?” Annabeth snapped.

Aiden, who was standing awkwardly by Luke’s side, laughed nervously. “Whoah, no one said that,” he said, grabbing Luke under his arm and trying to drag him away. Luke shook him off and waved him away.

“I think you could handle it,” Luke said. “I just don’t think this is the quest for you. Aiden, Paige, and I will go. Paige is a daughter of Ares, she’s the best choice if we have to fight the dragon, and Aiden is good with his hands. We’ll be back before you know it, and you’ll go on the next one. Promise.”

She softened. “You promise?”

“I do. Family doesn’t break promises.”

“And you’ll be okay?”

“I’ll be fine. It’s not like the quest is totally unique. Hercules did it.”

Annabeth stared at him, grey eyes a worried thunderstorm. “Exactly. Luke, you may be the best swordsman in a century, but you’re no Hercules.”

Luke grimaced. “You think I can’t do it?”

“I think you should be careful. Don’t take risks.”

He laughed and ruffled her hair. “I’m not reckless, Annabeth. And you aren’t my mother. I’ll be fine, I’ll follow the playbook.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Luke did not follow the playbook.

It wasn’t like he’d meant to lie to Annabeth, but the only way Hercules had gotten the apple was by tricking Atlas, and one look at the Titan made Luke think that he wouldn’t be willing to be tricked again. If Luke took the sky on his shoulders, he was never getting it back off. 

So a different strategy: sneak up on the dragon. Unfortunately, that didn’t work either. The thing must have some type of advanced hearing, because the three of them had barely made it ten steps into the garden before the copper thing curled at the base of the tree uncurled and yawned.

A hundred heads. Yawning.

That was when Luke realized he was going to die. He was really glad that he hadn’t brought Annabeth along.

“Ladon’s awake!” Paige screamed.

Ladon roared, curling tighter around the tree holding the golden apples, and then Luke and his friends were in a fight for their lives. A fight they knew they couldn’t win, but they could try. They could fight with honor for as long as they could stand. 

Once, Ladon struck at Luke with one of his heads, but then Aiden was there, his hand under Luke’s arm, pulling him back. At some point, he got close enough to the tree to swing blindly and cut off a claw, but he wasn’t even close to touching the golden apple he’d come for. 

Lagon reared up to bite. Luke closed his eyes for the killing blow. Everything slowed. The air grew dark and heavy. Suddenly, it was a struggle to even breathe. The dragon hesitated.

I’m going to die, Luke had time to think.

Lagon shrieked and brought his claws down on Luke’s face.

When it was all over, he was covered in blood, only half of it his own, and half of him couldn’t see, couldn’t see anything, but he was alive. 

In that, he was alone.

Back at Camp, Clarisse, a daughter of Ares who’d been at Camp Halfbood almost as long as he and Annabeth, was the one who greeted him on the hill. She didn’t blink at the gash on his face. Only peered behind him, uncharacteristic hope on her face.

“Where’s Paige?” she asked.

All Luke could do was shake his head.

They burned the shrouds on the trireme that Aiden had been working on with the Hephestus cabin. The kids there had thought that he might be their sibling. Now they would never know.

And it was the gods’ fault. Hephestus’s fault for not claiming Aiden. The gods in general, for refusing to help during a quest. His father’s, for giving out the damn quest in the first place.

The quest wasn’t urgent, wasn’t pressing. It was getting a stupid apple from a tree guarded by a dragon. It had been done before, and Hermes hadn’t even needed it for anything. Just another way to force Luke to prove himself.

The rest of the Camp didn’t blame Hermes, though. If they blamed anyone, they blamed Luke. But they wouldn’t even confront him, wouldn’t yell the accusations they were thinking. One look at his face, which had been slashed by Lagon’s claws, and they backed away in pity.

Luke couldn’t stand pity.

At the end of the summer, Chiron announced that there would be no more quests. Too dangerous.

Annabeth avoided him.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

His dreams took a dark turn.

Demigod dreams were usually strange, he’d lived with them since they’d been on the streets, but this was a whole other level. Everything was heavy and dark. It almost felt like in the middle of the fight with Lagon, when the dragon had decided not to bite him in two and spared his life instead.

“So you’ve finally made your way here. It took longer than I anticipated.”

Luke flinched at the booming voice that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at all. 

“What is this place?” he asked.

“Tartarus,” the voice said. “You’ve wandered down here a few times, but never close enough for me to talk to you.”

“I’ve never been to the Underworld in my life.”

“No, only in your dreams.”

Luke’s throat was dry. He swallowed. “Who are you?”

“Names have power,” the voice boomed, a strange echo of Chiron’s favorite saying. “Be careful when you ask for them, young demigod. You may be making a bargain you aren’t prepared for.”

“What bargain am I making this time?” Luke asked, circling warily. It wasn’t like there was anything for him to look at, but he felt like someone was watching him over his shoulder.

The voice laughed. “Bold. Good. I like that, Luke Castellan.”

Luke bristled. “So you warn me against asking for names, and then use mine without asking? Doesn’t seem quite fair.”

The voice hummed. “Interesting. My name is Kronos, young one. I have a deal for you.”

“I’ve heard that name before,” Luke said.

“I’d be disappointed if you hadn’t,” Kronos said. “I understand my son is your mentor.”

“Chiron is not my mentor,” Luke said reflexively. “He sent Aiden and Paige out to die. I almost died too. I should have.”

“I interfered.”

Luke missed a beat. “What?”

“I interfered. The gods were clearly not doing anything to save the heroes they’d sent to do their will, so I interfered. I only wish I’d done so sooner.”

Luke felt himself relaxing, almost of his own accord. He wasn’t sure he should let down his guard, there was a slimey quality to Kronos’s voice that put Luke on edge and he was sure he’d heard the name Kronos somewhere other than from Chiron, but he couldn’t help it. Someone had stopped Ladon for him. Someone cared about him.

“Why did you?” Luke asked. “Aren’t gods not supposed to disrupt a quest?”

“You assume I’m a god. The first hint that I’m not is that I know that you’re too valuable to be wasted on a pointless quest. You have potential. You could be great.”

“What do you want from me?”

“I want to make a deal,” Kronos said. “I will have a job for you soon. Something small. It won’t harm anyone, but it will teach the gods a lesson about paying attention to their kids. If they don’t listen, I may go further.”

“Further?”

Kronos grew. Luke couldn’t see it, but he could feel the influence on him grow stronger. The air thickened. “We will raze Olympus,” he promised. “Create a new order. You and me. The gods have held power for too long. It’s time for them to fall. They have grown out of touch, don’t care about anything anymore. Under them, the world will fall apart. But you can stop it, if you join me.”

Luke was already stumbling back. “Raze Olympus? Are you mad? No one can kill a god.”

“I can.”

“No. No, the gods are wrong. But they don’t deserve to fall.”

He woke up before the voice could respond.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next few nights, Luke barely slept, afraid of wandering his way back to Tartarus. He found as many books as his could on Kronos and read obsessively about how he had been overthrown by his own children, which explained his grudge against the gods. It didn’t explain why he had approached Luke.

It was after the campfire and he was heading back to his cabin when he noticed a strange figure on top of the climbing wall.

“It’s almost curfew,” he called.

The figure didn’t respond. Luke started the climb, lit by the lava that travelled the wall, and that was all it took for the figure to speak. “Don’t come up here!”

Luke paused. “Are you okay?”

Their voice was shaky and halting. “Fine,” they said. They were clearly lying.

“Hey, let me come up there and give you a hand,” Luke said. “I’ll help you get down, and then we can talk, okay?”

“No!” the kid screamed. “No talking!”

Other people were noticing now, coming over to the climbing wall where some kid was yelling at Luke Castellan, and Luke was holding on by basically his fingertips. “Let me get to a better spot, okay?” he said. The kid didn’t respond and Luke didn’t wait, climbing a few more feet before resting against one of the outcroppings. “What’s wrong?”

The kid shook harder, a trembling little silhouette fifty feet in the air. “No one wants me.”

“That’s not true,” Luke protested.

“It is! It is and you can’t convince me it’s not! If my mom wanted me, she’d claim me. She’d stop me. She’d do something!”

The kid teetered, dangerously close to the edge, and the crowd below gasped. Someone was running, probably to the pegasi stables, but there was no way they’d get there in time.

“Please, come down,” Luke pleaded. “Talk to me. I know it sucks that your mom won’t claim you, but you aren’t alone! It still could happen, and you aren’t the only unclaimed camper here. We’ll figure something out.”

“There’s nothing to figure out.” 

The kid jumped. Falling, falling, falling. No one had power over that, even Thalia had never been able to fly, so all Luke could do was watch.

Luke pledged himself to Kronos that night.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The thing Luke hadn’t expected about the Curse of Achilles was how much it hurt. How much he wanted to go under and stay there, floating in the sea of souls for all of eternity. Let everything he and Kronos were working for just be another lost dream thrown into the River Styx.

But he couldn’t. For Thalia. For Aiden. For Paige. For the kid who’d jumped off the climbing wall. He couldn’t let happen again.

So he gritted his teeth and pictured Aiden’s hand under his arm, scooping him up and pulling him out of the water. The spot was well-protected, nearly invincible. Kronos would rise, and the gods would fall, and it would never happen again.

But when he came out of the water, he was alone. Aiden was just a memory. There was no one to pull him back.

With a breath, he invited Kronos into his body.

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah, Luke may have made the wrong choices, but I see where he's coming from.


End file.
